MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1844: Doubts and Clarifications (1)

"...?!"

"Who’s there?!"

Not really expecting anyone to respond to his question, Valyr immediately became vigilant as he swept his gaze over the surroundings.

Seeing that there was no one else in the Void Core aside from himself, the young man decided to conjure a cloud of Void Energy, spreading it outwards.

’Are they hiding themselves?’ he wondered. ’If so, then the cloud would be able to sense their whereabouts.’

Unfortunately, even after having the cloud encompass a kilometer around him, Valyr could not find any trace of the one that responded to him whatsoever.

Thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to try, he then changed the energy powering the cloud from Void Energy to Prime Azure Energy, causing its size to balloon and cover a three kilometer radius.

Yet, even that wasn’t enough for him to figure out where the being was.

"No need to look around."

Just as Valyr was about to try some other methods that he thought would work, the voice that responded to him earlier made its presence known once more, allowing the former to find out that the voice wasn’t that far from him.

Though, before he could even start moving in the direction of the voice, something appeared within the Void Core all of a sudden.

Whoosh!

Seemingly parting itself from the large structure before him, an agglomeration of dark energy stopped a few meters away from the young man before taking on the form of a white wisp.

"Greetings," said the white wisp to Valyr, its voice similar to the one from earlier.

Staring at it for a bit, the young man took the time to sort out its thoughts before asking it a question.

"Are you...?"

"The one that responded to you earlier? Yes, that would be me." The white wisp confirmed his suspicions. "But make no mistake. I bear no ill intent towards you."

"If anything, my appearance here has a lot to do with you."

"With me?" Valyr looked back at the wisp in curiosity. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, aside from the fact that your prior actions have caused me to awaken, I am also here to clarify some of the doubts that you have."

"My doubts?" The young man mulled over its words for a bit. "Are you... perhaps talking about my questions from earlier?"

"Correct," replied the wisp. "To shed a bit of light on your confusion, the catalyst for my awakening was none other than the experience you’ve just gone through."

"Wait..." Hearing those words, Valyr went silent as the gears in his mind began to turn.

Going over his previous train of thought before the white wisp appeared, a series of connections soon formed in his mind, prompting the young man to look back at the wisp with slight surprise.

"Are you perhaps... Veradine Avantis?" he asked, his tone somewhat doubtful.

"Quite the agile mind." The wisp chuckled. "Well, you could say that I am her in a way."

While the wisp was responding to his question, Valyr finally understood why the wisp’s voice sounded familiar to him.

It was because its voice was none other than Veradine’s voice.

The same voice he had gotten used to after experiencing 25 years of her life.

"In a way?" The young man took note of its words. "Why do you say that?"

"That’s because Veradine is dead," said the wisp as if it were a matter of fact. "It’s already been over ten eons since her death."

"Ten eons..." Although Valyr did not know how much time that was, from how the wisp spoke, he had a feeling that it was an unbearably long amount of time.

"Well, no point dwelling over what’s already happened a long time ago," said the wisp soon after, bringing the young man’s attention back to their current conversation. "All you need to know for now is that I’m probably the most knowledgeable being when it comes to Veradine."

"...Understood." The young man could only nod at its words.

"So... any doubts you want to have clarified?"

"Hmm..." Valyr rubbed his chin for a bit. "I suppose my first question would be why the mark near me has disappeared."

Unsure whether or not the wisp had heard all of his musings ever since he returned to the waking world, the young man decided to err on the side of caution as he gave his response.

"The first question I heard, then," answered the wisp. "The mark that was left behind by... Arcane, was it?"

"Yes." Though Valyr was slightly surprised that the wisp remembered him mentioning it, the young man did not show this surprise on the outside.

"Well, to answer your question, part of the reason why the mark Arcane left disappeared was precisely because of the aura you emanated," said the wisp, prompting the young man to nod in understanding.

However, the wisp’s next words caused him to look at it in confusion.

"But for the most part, the reason why her mark disappeared is pretty simple. She retracted it from the Void Core."

"...Really?" Valyr could not help but doubt that answer.

"Really."

"...Why?"

"No clue," replied the wisp. "I’ve been in the Void Core this entire time. How would I know what made her retract her mark?"

"...Fair enough," said the young man after giving it some thought.

"But then again, it’s quite surprising."

"Hmm?" The former raised his eyebrow at those words. "What is?"

"You actually know Arcane." The wisp spoke in a tone of amusement. "Didn’t you know that she used to be a good friend of Veradine?"

"Wait..."

"...Huh?"

At that moment, Valyr felt as if someone swung a massive sledgehammer to the back of his head as a number of thoughts began to surface in his mind.

Veradine’s life...

The sequence of events that led to the current situation...

The conversation he and Arcane had...

The moment thoughts of the latter began to appear in his head, the young man immediately thought back to the person that Arcane only mentioned as ’Her’.

And now that he found out from the wisp that Arcane was actually a good friend of Veradine...

Did that mean Veradine was the ’Her’ Arcane was talking about?

"...Excuse me for a second." Feeling as if he had finally peeked past a curtain that contained secrets behind it, Valyr spent a bit of time composing himself before looking at the wisp with a solemn expression.

"Correct me if I’m wrong, but... isn’t Veradine the one that created Shadow Energy?"

"She is." The wisp confirmed. "Not only did she create Shadow Energy, but she also pushed Shadow Energy to greater heights, allowing the Shadow Plane to become what it is today."

"...I see."

"Because of what she’s done with Shadow Energy, alongside being recognized for her great intellect and comprehension, she’s gone on to become known by many titles. The True Empress of Shadows, Sage of Heavenly Comprehension, Grand Beacon of Innovation, Savior of a Million Realms, Prodigy of a Myriad Schools... as well as many more titles that I won’t bother listing down."

"..."

"But out of all these titles, I’d say there’s only one that truly describes her as a person."

"...And that would be...?"

"The Ambitious One."